Fisher1

3 hours ago, ramot said:

Hope it goes in your favour. Sorry can’t help with your question. 

Thanks Ramot.  We've actually already written the money off, seemed the most sensible attitude to take - but we'll be dammed if we just hand it over.  I want them to have to make an effort to get it!  

On 17/09/2018 at 16:54, Fisher1 said:

Brilliant

Okay, so we went to the conciliation hearing and the chairwoman / arbiter, on hearing that we had already paid costs in full and that the landlord had a tenant move in the day after we moved out, told the agent to ring the landlird and suggest they might want to have a rethink. Apparently if you accept costs you cant (in her view) then ask for the 4 week lease break fee, even if you refund the costs already paid. There is also apparently a precedent from another case which allows a NSW  tribunal discetion in their award ... the 4 week fee need not be mandatory.  The landlord was duly telephoned and insisted on going to a tribunal.

I now have till October 30 to send in any evidence I rely on at the tribunal (date to be decided).  

My question is this - as I am writing  a timeline of events to submit with copies of emails, would it be worth writing it as an affidavit or is a simple written  statement ... any ideas? 

2 minutes ago, Geoffandgill said:

Hi everyone, well we finally left Melbourne Sunday morning 7th Oct and flew to Auckland for four nights. Our visa was issued on the 8th! Now home, no longer feeling in limbo, took 40 months in total Woohoo!

i have read that residential visas need a re-entry visa if you travel out of the country after five years , does anyone know if this refers to 143 visas?

Good luck to all left in the waiting room, we feel your pain and uncertainty but it will happen eventually

Geoff & Gill

Congratulations!   We cane over on a 143 a year ago - to the best of my knowledge you have five years from the date the visa was issued to come and go as you please. After that you need a resudents return visa. I'd double check, but I think that's right. Good luck with it all!

52 minutes ago, starlight7 said:

Quite a few around I think- RACV is one.  Probus also does it and I think Budget Direct. I also found this but don't know anything about it.

https://www.finder.com.au/travel-insurance?utm_source=google_ppc_ti-p&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=FTI+-+Travel+Insurance+|P|&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIppHbhor-3QIV2KmWCh2irgrCEAAYAiAAEgIY_PD_BwE

Costs vary a lot  and you need to check the fine print very carefully!

Thank you !

2 hours ago, SineadK said:

What visa did you come over on? My parents are planning to do the same. 

We came on a 143. If you look o  the parents thread on here you'll find everything you need to know. Advise them to apply sooner rather than later as the queue just keeps getting longer. Good luck!

I cant offer any advice other than whats on here but just wanted to wish you luck and say dont give up. When my daughter came out here 14 yrs ago (only child) I could see no prospect of us ever being more than long distance parents. We moved over to join her a year ago.  So get an agent and cross your fingers, you never know what you can do till you try.

Hi all 

We are planning.a trip back to the UK next year and would like to fo for two months

Can anyone give the name of an insurance company that will offer tracel insurance for that long to a couple in their late sixties?

Thanks 

13 hours ago, karen williams said:

I am British but was living in New Zealand with my young Daughter when I met and married an Australian, it made sense to move to Melbourne Australia as all his family were here. With the exception of his parents his family were not overly welcoming. We adapted to our new life, it was only after my Husband passed away three years ago and I have visited UK three times that I realise, I have lived in Australia but it's never really been home, on my last visit to England in September this year, I felt totally content and walked around with a stupid grin on my face most of the time. I love the British sense of humour and I just felt like I belonged. My Daughter and her then boyfriend moved to London 12 years ago on a working holiday, they are now married with a child, they have visited many times but there is no talk about moving back to Australia to live. When people asked me when I was flying  home I realised I already felt like I was home. I would have happily stayed in England. When I arrived back in Melbourne I felt totally flat. I am now making plans to move to England to live and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I am not saying that Australia is a bad place to live, it just doesn't suit me.

Good luck with everything ... we moved the other way a year ago to be near our daughter ... huge upheaval but worth it if you are happy

On 26/09/2018 at 20:45, Pertenhall said:

42 months, 2 weeks and 1 day later AND WE HAVE OUR VISAs.  Can hardly believe it.  Now we just need to sell the house.

I was so pleased to read your post. Many congrats and good luck with it all. Its a wonderful feeling isn't it?

On 14 September 2018 at 10:33, SWMOY04 said:

I feel for you in your difficulties, however I have to disagree with most of what you have said, not just in this quote.

But I'll only deal with these two statements.

in summary, I'm no millionaire in the UK, but studying my situation here and comparing the same jobs, housing and social elements, Australia is a MUUUUUCH better bet....even in Australia, I am nowhere near being millionaire within the next 3 years unless my income source changes...

even with the expensive rents, I still have more disposable income I Aus than the UK.

granted our life situations are different, but I don't think they are that different that you would put a warning saying "Aus:for millionaires only"

 

 

I have to agree with you. My husband and I have been here for a year and have just finished sorting out a proper budget based on actual bills rather than guesstimates. We have now bought a house which is half the size and was twice the price of our old house in North Wales so I agree about the awful housing costs. Apart from that, having totted up our annual bills (plus 10% for inflation) and reached a monthly figure to save, our overheads are almost identical. Ditto the grocery bill. Some things are much more expensive but on the whole our living costs are about the same. Its the housing cost that makes it unafordable - we were lucky enough to be sble to buy.

On 14/09/2018 at 16:23, welljock said:

In which case you should now be telling them, as they terminated the lease you will not be paying the fees and you will be looking for the tribunal fee from them too, even if it's just to get them to drop the lbf.  

Brilliant

34 minutes ago, welljock said:

Re-reading your posts; did you actually break the lease?

From the OP, it looks like you merely informed the agent that you would not be renewing at the end of the lease and said if they found someone you would be agreeable to them breaking the lease. If this was the case you shouldn't actually be liable for the agents fees either.

Thanks Welljock, got it in one. We thought it was fair to pay the associated costs because then it was mutually beneficial. This is why we are so furious - i used to hate it when a tenant moved out because you never quite knew how long it would take to find a new tenant ... we never gave notice of our intention to leave.

3 hours ago, rammygirl said:

I thought it was either the lease break penalty or the ad fees plus rent. If they want the lease break then they should pay back the other fees. 

I agree the landlord is being pig headed but maybe they have had enough of the agents incompetence too.

The agent is at fault and should sort it out so no one but them loses out.

we have been both tenants and landlords and have had excellent agents. When we have used a void to do maintenance we have not expected the tenant to pay as the property wasn’t leasable for that time. Fair play.

To be  fair the agent is billing us for the lbf minus the costs we have already paid.

16 minutes ago, rammygirl said:

Common sense would say that the agent is at fault for negotiation without landlord agreement. 

The landlord is untitled to ask for what was signed up for. The agent appears not to have looked at the lease properly. 

The agent should admit it messed up and suck up the consequences and make sure you and the landlord get a fair deal. If they lose out and have to settle the fair enough it was their fault. 

Wonder if this will actually happen though. They should have done this anyway. 

Yes I agree entirely. Although I really don't see why the landlord should be able to make an extra profit on something which has cost them nothing ... especially since they have had all the associated costs paid by us.

I was a private landlord for 12 years and would have been thanking my ex-tenants if they had done as much for me - not trying to screw a bit of extra profit out of them!

On 12/09/2018 at 20:10, Jon the Hat said:

No way should you pay anything over which you are not required to by a tribunal!  Make them do the running.  I would do nothing and wait for their next move.

Thank you Jon. Thats what we decided and we now have a hearing date. The agency are desperately innefficient .. they have miscalculated the account (again) and have submitted thewrong date for the start of our lease ... even though it says the date on the tenancy agreement!    New information from our daughter this week is that we e can apparently report the agency to the NSW trading standards for behaving inappropriately ... bring it on!!!

So we dont even get to glare at the greedy woman at the tribunal?  How disappointing!

Thanks for the info. 

No, but they have said that they have to represent their landlord, but are willing to discuss it with us. Their whole tone us njw totally conciliatory, but I  dont trust them.

Okay, so we decided to go to a rent tribunal. The problem is that you have to file under the appropriate category from a preset list. The categories for tenants include things like "rent rises" or "evict

ion notices". I cant find a category for ex-tenants who have settled up and are now being asked for more money. So we can't file. I cant get hold of the tenants advocate for advice (constantly engaged) and we are beginning to worry that if we dont pay up we'll be landed with legal fees should they sue and win.    We are thinking about paying the 900$ and immediately filing to recoup the money as "overpaid rent" - there is a category for that.

Comments/advice welcome!

8 hours ago, KazBaker said:

Thank you my dear brother. You have been awesome to me over the bad time. God bless you. Thank you so much

sister  

6 hours ago, KazBaker said:

As you know Medicare allows you to have free up to 5 sessions with speech therapy in a year  and I have to pay the additional sessions from 6th session in a year. Though it depends on considering the fact that how my son goes with the language progress. And the therapist will monitor and assess based on my son’s condition. I will have to pay out of my pocket and I don’t bother for it.

Good things is my son’s progress look good. I was really worried for last 2 months.

Good luck with it all, but don't expect instant progress … these things take time. Hope it all goes well for you from here on.

10 hours ago, Nemesis said:

see here  https://banknotes.rba.gov.au/legal/legal-tender/

Thanks for that  my post should of course have said 'just'. ... Fat fingers!

Kust by the way, does anyone know what is the smallest unit of Australisn currency that has to be accepted i  paymment of a bill? Also, would writing "SWAG" on an envelope full of money constitute an act of libel?  (Only half joking)

Okay so we thought this was all settled. The rental agency caved when confronted with all their emails, and instead of charging us 700$ or so, actually refunded 600$ or so. This was last week, and we thought it was all settled.

Now we have had an email from the agent, saying that the landlord is adamant that she wants to impose the lease break fee on us, even though the tenancy was ended by mutual agreement, even though we left only seven weeks early, even though we saved her a possible void and thought we were in a win win situation - and even though she had given her agreement to finding a new tenant before the end of our one year lease, with the agreement that we would need to pay rent until the new tenant moved in.

This bloody woman has lost not a penny in rent, and because we left seven weeks early, she has had her new tenancy fees paid for her, by us. 

We are going to go to a rent tribunal and ask for a ruling, make her wait for her pound of flesh. I don't know when I've ever felt so disgusted with a service provider in my life.

Watch this space.

Yes, we came across this ozzie phenomenon many times when we were house hunting. After a bit you start to notice some of the mire obvious bits if photoshopping because you see the same style in different houses. Also very fo d of making the roo.s look much bigger than they really are. My opinion of estate agents here couldnt be lower after a recent tussle over a rental bond - you really can't trust a word most of them say.

If you do make an offer on a house we now know to always put it in writing!

On 30 August 2018 at 07:14, Quoll said:

Good luck, we are doing it now for my 94 year old dad.  We have never applied for a carer's allowance (been here 7 years on Friday!) but my dad gets an Attendance Allowance.  It isnt the easiest gig in town but I have found there is quite a deal of support out there if you ask for it.  There are dementia support groups, exercise groups, complex case management supports - more than we actually choose to access I am sure. We've still got our Aussie place and basically just arrived with a backpack, not intending to stay all those years ago.  It's pretty stressful basically just sitting round waiting for someone to die but that's the bottom line really.

I wish you all the best with it, it wont be easy but your conscience will be clear!

Still walking the hard yards Quoll? ... I feel for you because as you say, its not a great situation to be in. I am so glad we didnt leave my mum ... I dont think I'd have ever forgiven myself. Hope its all going reasonably smoothly for you.

16 hours ago, KazBaker said:

My son has started talking now though he hasn’t been fluent yet but can communicate with us at his needs. He is doing what he never done this before. Overall it looks good progress for him. Now he is enrolled to a child care where he spends 10hours a day. 

For doctor assessment, still hasn’t received the final report which we have been waiting for.

as long as i receive it i will update here.

keep my son in your prayer dears all

Thank you so much everyone who help and support in my needs.

 

Regards,

Great news, hope all continues to improve for you.